Condensate pumps can effect system balance

Boilerpro_3

and the pump is still leaking. I am trying to get the owner to just have us repipe it and go to gravity return. Too busy right now, but hope to get the owner to do it when things settle down a bit. Word is starting to get around that I deal in steam. Got a system over in Iowa to look at and another in a big home in a small nearby town. The realtors in the area are starting to call, so things are looking to get even busier.

Happy Steam'n

Boilerpro

Boilerpro_3

Condensate pumps...system balance

Just a little tidbit I observed on a steam boiler that Steamhead and I looked at a while back.

A new W-M 550,000 input EG boiler was installed to replace the big old firetube boiler. The owner's were looking for the cheapest replacement because the building was for sale, so the installing contractor just hooked up the old condensate pump to the new boiler. However, now when the new boiler just begins to get the steam out to the system, the pump kicks on, cools down the boiler very quickly (can you say "thermal load shock") the steam collapses and sucks air back in the main vents. Pretty hard to get the system to heat evenly this way.

IMHO, please install a throttling valve on every condensate pump and adjust it... the occupants will thank you and so will the boiler.

Boilerpro

Steamhead

I still wonder

if that pump is really needed. There's about three times more "A" Dimension with the new boiler than with the old one. And since the reservoir fills so quickly, there shouldn't be enough delay in returning the condensate by gravity to warrant the reservoir, pump and traps.



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